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[[Category:Desktop environments| ]]

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[[Category:Desktop environments]]

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{{Article summary start}}

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{{Related articles start}}

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{{Article summary text|In graphical computing, a desktop environment (DE) commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface (GUI) derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. This article provides a general overview of popular desktop environments.}}

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{{Related|Display manager}}

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{{Article summary heading|Overview}}

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{{Related|Window manager}}

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{{Article summary text|{{Graphical user interface overview}}}}

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{{Related|Xorg}}

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{{Article summary heading|Resources}}

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{{Related|Wayland}}

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{{Article summary wiki|Wikipedia:Desktop environment}}

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{{Related|Default applications}}

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{{Article summary wiki|Wikipedia:X Window System}}

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{{Related articles end}}

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{{Article summary end}}

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A [[Wikipedia:Desktop environment|desktop environment]] provides a ''complete'' graphical user interface (GUI) for a system by bundling together a variety of components written using a common widget toolkit and set of libraries.

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'''Desktop environments''' provide a ''complete'' graphical user interface (GUI) for a system by bundling together a variety of X clients written using a common widget toolkit and set of libraries.

A desktop environment bundles together a variety of components to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities. Most importantly, desktop environments provide their own [[window manager]], which can however usually be replaced with another compatible one.

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The [[Wikipedia:X Window System|X Window System]] provides the foundation for a graphical user interface. Prior to installing a desktop environment, a functional X server installation is required. See [[Xorg]] for detailed information.

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The user is free to configure their GUI environment in any number of ways. Desktop environments simply provide a complete and convenient means of accomplishing this task. Note that users are free to mix-and-match applications from multiple desktop environments. For example, a KDE user may install and run GNOME applications such as the Epiphany web browser, should he/she prefer it over KDE's Konqueror web browser. One drawback of this approach is that many applications provided by desktop environment projects rely heavily upon their DE's respective underlying libraries. As a result, installing applications from a range of desktop environments will require installation of a larger number of dependencies. Users seeking to conserve disk space and avoid [[Wikipedia:software bloat|software bloat]] often avoid such mixed environments, or look into lightweight alternatives.

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:''X provides the basic framework, or primitives, for building such GUI environments: drawing and moving windows on the screen and interacting with a mouse and keyboard. X does not mandate the user interface — individual client programs known as window managers handle this. As such, the visual styling of X-based environments varies greatly; different programs may present radically different interfaces. X is built as an additional (application) abstraction layer on top of the operating system kernel.''

The user is free to configure their GUI environment in any number of ways. Desktop environments simply provide a complete and convenient means of accomplishing this task.

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Prior to installing a desktop environment, a functional X server installation is required. See [[Xorg]] for detailed information. Some desktop environments may also support [[Wayland]] as an alternative to X, but most of these are still experimental.

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== Desktop environments ==

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== List of desktop environments ==

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A desktop environment bundles together a variety of X clients to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, windows, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities.

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=== Officially supported ===

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Note that users are free to mix-and-match applications from multiple desktop environments. For example, a KDE user may install and run GNOME applications such as the Epiphany web browser, should he/she prefer it over KDE's Konqueror web browser. One drawback of this approach is that many applications provided by desktop environment projects rely heavily upon their DE's respective underlying libraries. As a result, installing applications from a range of desktop environments will require installation of a larger number of dependencies. Users seeking to conserve disk space and avoid [[Wikipedia:software bloat|software bloat]] often avoid such mixed environments, or look into lightweight alternatives.

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* {{App|[[Budgie Desktop|Budgie]]|Budgie is a desktop environment designed with the modern user in mind, it focuses on simplicity and elegance. |https://solus-project.com/budgie/|{{Pkg|budgie-desktop}}}}

* {{App|[[Enlightenment]]|The Enlightenment desktop shell provides an efficient window manager based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries along with other essential desktop components like a file manager, desktop icons and widgets. It supports themes, while still being capable of performing on older hardware or embedded devices.|https://www.enlightenment.org/|{{Pkg|enlightenment}}}}

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* {{App|[[Cinnamon]]|Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME 3. Cinnamon strives to provide a traditional user experience, similar to GNOME 2.|http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/|{{Pkg|cinnamon}}}}

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* {{App|[[GNOME]]|The GNOME desktop environment is an attractive and intuitive desktop with both a modern (''GNOME'') and a classic (''GNOME Classic'') session.|https://www.gnome.org/gnome-3/|{{grp|gnome}}}}

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* {{App|[[Enlightenment]]|The Enlightenment desktop shell provides an efficient yet breathtaking window manager based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries along with other essential desktop components like a file manager, desktop icons and widgets. It boasts a unprecedented level of theme-ability while still being capable of performing on older hardware or embedded devices.|http://www.enlightenment.org/|{{Pkg|enlightenment17}}}}

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* {{App|[[GNOME Flashback]]| GNOME Flashback is a shell for GNOME 3 which was initially called GNOME fallback mode. The desktop layout and the underlying technology is similar to GNOME 2.|https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeFlashback|{{Pkg|gnome-flashback}}}}

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* {{App|[[GNOME]]|The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment, an attractive and intuitive desktop for users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop. GNOME is free, usable, accessible, international, developer-friendly, organized, supported, and a community.|http://www.gnome.org/about/|{{grp|gnome}}}}

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* {{App|[[KDE Plasma]]|The KDE Plasma desktop environment is a familiar working environment. Plasma Desktop offers all the tools required for a modern desktop computing experience so you can be productive right from the start.|https://www.kde.org/workspaces/plasmadesktop/|{{grp|plasma}}}}

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* {{App|[[KDE]]|KDE software consists of a large number of individual applications and a desktop workspace as a shell to run these applications. You can run KDE applications just fine on any desktop environment as they are built to integrate well with your system's components. By also using the KDE workspace, you get even better integration of your applications with the working environment while lowering system resource demands.|http://www.kde.org/|{{grp|kde}}}}

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* {{App|[[LXDE]]|The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment is a fast and energy-saving desktop environment. It comes with a modern interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Fundamentally designed to be lightweight, LXDE strives to be less CPU and RAM intensive than other environments.|http://lxde.org/|GTK+ 2: {{grp|lxde}}, GTK+ 3: {{grp|lxde-gtk3}}}}

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* {{App|[[LXDE]]|The "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment" is a fast and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained by an international community of developers, it comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Fundamentally designed to be lightweight, LXDE uses less CPU and RAM than other environments. It is especially beneficial for cloud computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers.|http://lxde.org/|{{grp|lxde}}}}

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* {{App|[[LXQt]]|LXQt is the Qt port and the upcoming version of LXDE, the Lightweight Desktop Environment. It is the product of the merge between the LXDE-Qt and the Razor-qt projects: A lightweight, modular, blazing-fast and user-friendly desktop environment.|http://lxqt.org/|{{grp|lxqt}}}}

* {{App|[[Xfce]]|Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment, while remaining relatively light. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.|http://www.xfce.org/|{{grp|xfce4}}}}

* {{App|[[Xfce]]|Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment, while remaining relatively light. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.|http://www.xfce.org/|{{grp|xfce4}}}}

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==== Unofficially supported ====

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=== Unofficially supported ===

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* {{App|[[CDE]]|The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) is a desktop environment for Unix and OpenVMS, based on the Motif widget toolkit. It was part of the UNIX98 Workstation Product Standard, and was long the "classic" Unix desktop associated with commercial Unix workstations. Highly experimental.|https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/|{{AUR|cdesktopenv}}}}

* {{App|[[Equinox Desktop Environment|EDE]]|The "Equinox Desktop Environment" is a DE designed to be simple, extremely light-weight and fast.|http://equinox-project.org/|{{AUR|ede}}}}

* {{App|[[Equinox Desktop Environment|EDE]]|The "Equinox Desktop Environment" is a DE designed to be simple, extremely light-weight and fast.|http://equinox-project.org/|{{AUR|ede}}}}

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* {{App|[[Etoile|Étoilé]]|Étoilé is a user environment designed from the ground up around the things people do with computers: create, collaborate,and learn.|http://etoileos.com/|{{AUR|etoile}}}}

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* {{App|[[Hawaii]]|Hawaii is a lightweight, coherent and fast desktop environment that relies on Qt 5, QtQuick and Wayland and is designed to offer the best UX for the device where it is running.|http://hawaiios.org|{{AUR|hawaii-shell}}}}

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* {{App|[[GNOME Flashback]]| GNOME Flashback is a shell for GNOME 3 which was initially called GNOME fallback mode. The desktop layout and the underlying technology is similar to GNOME 2.|https://wiki.gnome.org/GnomeFlashback|{{AUR|gnome-panel}}}}

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* {{App|[[Lumina]]|Lumina is a lightweight desktop environment written in Qt 5 for FreeBSD that uses Fluxbox for window management.|https://blog.pcbsd.org/2014/04/quick-lumina-desktop-faq/|{{AUR|lumina-desktop}}}}

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* {{App|Hawaii|Hawaii is a lightweight, coherent and fast desktop environment that relies on Qt 5, QtQuick and Wayland and is designed to offer the best UX for the device where it is running.|http://www.maui-project.org/|{{AUR|hawaii-meta-git}}}}

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* {{App|[[Moksha]]|Fork of Enlightenment currently used as default desktop environment in Ubuntu-based Bodhi Linux.|http://www.bodhilinux.com/moksha-desktop/|{{AUR|moksha}}}}

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* {{App|[[MATE]]|MATE is a fork of GNOME 2. Mate provides an intuitive and attractive desktop to Linux users using traditional metaphors.|http://www.mate-desktop.org/|{{AUR?|mate-}}}}

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* {{App|[[Pantheon]]|Pantheon is the default desktop environment originally created for the elementary OS distribution. It is written from scratch using Vala and the GTK3 toolkit. With regards to usability and appearance, the desktop has some similarities with GNOME Shell and macOS.|https://elementary.io/|{{AUR|pantheon-session-bzr}}}}

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* {{App|[[Pantheon]]|Pantheon is the default desktop environment originally created for the elementary OS distribution. It is written from scratch using Vala and the GTK3 toolkit. With regards to usability and appearance, the desktop has some similarities with GNOME Shell and Mac OS X.|http://elementaryos.org/|{{AUR|pantheon-session-bzr}}}}

* {{App|[[Razor-qt]]|Razor-qt is an advanced, easy-to-use, and fast desktop environment based on Qt technologies. It has been tailored for users who value simplicity, speed, and an intuitive interface. While still a new project, Razor-qt already contains all the key DE components.|http://razor-qt.org/|{{AUR|razor-qt}}}}

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* {{App|[[Sugar]]|The Sugar Learning Platform is a computer environment composed of Activities designed to help children from 5 to 12 years of age learn together through rich-media expression. Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with the opportunity for a quality education — it is currently used by nearly one-million children worldwide speaking 25 languages in over 40 countries. Sugar provides the means to help people lead fulfilling lives through access to a quality education that is currently missed by so many.|https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/|{{AUR|sugar}}}}

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* {{App|[[ROX]]|ROX is a fast, user friendly desktop which makes extensive use of drag-and-drop. The interface revolves around the file manager, following the traditional UNIX view that 'everything is a file' rather than trying to hide the filesystem beneath start menus, wizards, or druids. The aim is to make a system that is well designed and clearly presented. The ROX style favors using several small programs together instead of creating all-in-one mega-applications.|http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/|{{AUR?|rox-}}}}

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* {{App|theShell|theShell is a desktop environment that tries to be as transparent as possible. It uses Qt 5 as its widget toolkit and KWin as its window manager. It also incorporates a personal assistant.|https://vicr123.github.io/theshell|{{AUR|theshell}}}}

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* {{App|[[Sugar]]|The Sugar Learning Platform is a computer environment composed of Activities designed to help children from 5 to 12 years of age learn together through rich-media expression. Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with the opportunity for a quality education &mdash; it is currently used by nearly one-million children worldwide speaking 25 languages in over 40 countries. Sugar provides the means to help people lead fulfilling lives through access to a quality education that is currently missed by so many.|http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/|{{AUR|sugar}}}}

* {{App|[[Unity]]|Unity is a shell for GNOME designed by Canonical for Ubuntu.|http://unity.ubuntu.com/|{{AUR|unity}}}}

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* {{App|[[Unity]]|Unity is a shell for GNOME designed by Canonical for Ubuntu.|http://unity.ubuntu.com/|See [[Unity]]}}

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=== Comparison of desktop environments ===

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== Comparison of desktop environments ==

''This section attempts to draw a comparison between popular desktop environments. Note that first-hand experience is the only effective way to truly evaluate whether a desktop environment best suits your needs.''

''This section attempts to draw a comparison between popular desktop environments. Note that first-hand experience is the only effective way to truly evaluate whether a desktop environment best suits your needs.''

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{{Wikipedia|Comparison of X Window System desktop environments}}

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See also [[Wikipedia:Comparison of X Window System desktop environments]].

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{| class="wikitable" border="1" cellpadding="2"

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{| class="wikitable"

|+ Overview of desktop environments <!-- PLEASE DO NOT OVER-CLUTTER THIS TABLE! -->

|+ Overview of desktop environments <!-- PLEASE DO NOT OVER-CLUTTER THIS TABLE! -->

In terms of system resources, GNOME and KDE are ''expensive'' desktop environments. Not only do complete installations consume more disk space than lightweight alternatives (Enlightenment, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce) but also more CPU and memory resources while in use. This is because GNOME and KDE are relatively ''full-featured'': they provide the most complete and well-integrated environments.

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In terms of system resources, GNOME and KDE are ''expensive'' desktop environments. Not only do complete installations consume more disk space than lightweight alternatives (Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt and Xfce) but also more CPU and memory resources while in use. This is because GNOME and KDE are relatively ''full-featured'': they provide the most complete and well-integrated environments.

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Enlightenment, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce, on the other hand, are ''lightweight'' desktop environments. They are designed to work well on older or lower-power hardware and generally consume fewer system resources while in use. This is achieved by cutting back on ''extra'' features (which some would term ''bloat'').

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Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt and Xfce, on the other hand, are ''lightweight'' desktop environments. They are designed to work well on older or lower-power hardware and generally consume fewer system resources while in use. This is achieved by cutting back on ''extra'' features (which some would term ''bloat'').

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==== Environment familiarity ====

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== Custom environments ==

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Many users describe KDE as more ''Windows-like'' and GNOME as more ''Mac-like''. This is a very subjective comparison, since either desktop environment can be customized to emulate the Windows or Mac operating systems. See [http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/is-kde-more-windows-like-than-gnome/ Is KDE 'more Windows-like' than Gnome?] and [http://www.jeffwu.net/?p=71 KDE vs Gnome] for more information. ([http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm Linux is Not Windows] is also an excellent resource.)

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Desktop environments represent the simplest means of installing a ''complete'' graphical environment. However, users are free to build and customize their graphical environment in any number of ways if none of the popular desktop environments meet their requirements. Generally, building a custom environment involves selection of a suitable [[window manager]], a [[List of applications#Taskbars / panels / docks|taskbar]] and a number of applications (a minimalist selection usually includes a [[terminal emulator]], [[List of applications#File managers|file manager]], and [[text editor]]).

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== Custom environments ==

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Other applications that are usually provided by desktop environments are:

In many desktop environments, it is possible to replace the supplied window manager. See below for instructions specific to your environment.

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;GNOME

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Alternative window managers cannot be used with GNOME Shell however [[GNOME Flashback]] provides sessions for Metacity and [[Compiz]]. Furthermore, it is possible to define your own [[GNOME/Tips and tricks#Custom GNOME sessions|custom GNOME sessions]] which use alternative components.

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;Cinnamon

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Alternative window managers cannot be used with [[Cinnamon]].

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;Other desktop environments

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* KDE - See [[KDE#Using an alternative window manager]].

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* MATE - See [[MATE#Use a different window manager with MATE]].

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* Xfce - See [[Xfce#Default window manager]].

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* LXDE - See [[LXDE#Replace Openbox]].

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* LXQt - See [[LXQt#Replace Openbox]].

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Desktop environments represent the simplest means of installing a ''complete'' graphical environment. However, users are free to build and customize their graphical environment in any number of ways should none of the popular desktop environments meet their requirements. Generally, building a custom environment involves selection of a suitable [[Window Manager]] and a number of lightweight applications (a minimalist selection usually includes a [[List of Applications#Terminal emulators|terminal emulator]], [[List of Applications#File managers|file manager]], and [[List of Applications#Text editors|text editor]]).

Contents

Overview

A desktop environment bundles together a variety of components to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities. Most importantly, desktop environments provide their own window manager, which can however usually be replaced with another compatible one.

The user is free to configure their GUI environment in any number of ways. Desktop environments simply provide a complete and convenient means of accomplishing this task. Note that users are free to mix-and-match applications from multiple desktop environments. For example, a KDE user may install and run GNOME applications such as the Epiphany web browser, should he/she prefer it over KDE's Konqueror web browser. One drawback of this approach is that many applications provided by desktop environment projects rely heavily upon their DE's respective underlying libraries. As a result, installing applications from a range of desktop environments will require installation of a larger number of dependencies. Users seeking to conserve disk space and avoid software bloat often avoid such mixed environments, or look into lightweight alternatives.

Prior to installing a desktop environment, a functional X server installation is required. See Xorg for detailed information. Some desktop environments may also support Wayland as an alternative to X, but most of these are still experimental.

List of desktop environments

Officially supported

Budgie — Budgie is a desktop environment designed with the modern user in mind, it focuses on simplicity and elegance.

Enlightenment — The Enlightenment desktop shell provides an efficient window manager based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries along with other essential desktop components like a file manager, desktop icons and widgets. It supports themes, while still being capable of performing on older hardware or embedded devices.

KDE Plasma — The KDE Plasma desktop environment is a familiar working environment. Plasma Desktop offers all the tools required for a modern desktop computing experience so you can be productive right from the start.

LXDE — The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment is a fast and energy-saving desktop environment. It comes with a modern interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Fundamentally designed to be lightweight, LXDE strives to be less CPU and RAM intensive than other environments.

LXQt — LXQt is the Qt port and the upcoming version of LXDE, the Lightweight Desktop Environment. It is the product of the merge between the LXDE-Qt and the Razor-qt projects: A lightweight, modular, blazing-fast and user-friendly desktop environment.

Xfce — Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment, while remaining relatively light. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.

Unofficially supported

CDE — The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) is a desktop environment for Unix and OpenVMS, based on the Motif widget toolkit. It was part of the UNIX98 Workstation Product Standard, and was long the "classic" Unix desktop associated with commercial Unix workstations. Highly experimental.

Pantheon — Pantheon is the default desktop environment originally created for the elementary OS distribution. It is written from scratch using Vala and the GTK3 toolkit. With regards to usability and appearance, the desktop has some similarities with GNOME Shell and macOS.

Sugar — The Sugar Learning Platform is a computer environment composed of Activities designed to help children from 5 to 12 years of age learn together through rich-media expression. Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with the opportunity for a quality education — it is currently used by nearly one-million children worldwide speaking 25 languages in over 40 countries. Sugar provides the means to help people lead fulfilling lives through access to a quality education that is currently missed by so many.

Comparison of desktop environments

This section attempts to draw a comparison between popular desktop environments. Note that first-hand experience is the only effective way to truly evaluate whether a desktop environment best suits your needs.

Resource use

In terms of system resources, GNOME and KDE are expensive desktop environments. Not only do complete installations consume more disk space than lightweight alternatives (Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt and Xfce) but also more CPU and memory resources while in use. This is because GNOME and KDE are relatively full-featured: they provide the most complete and well-integrated environments.

Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt and Xfce, on the other hand, are lightweight desktop environments. They are designed to work well on older or lower-power hardware and generally consume fewer system resources while in use. This is achieved by cutting back on extra features (which some would term bloat).

Custom environments

Desktop environments represent the simplest means of installing a complete graphical environment. However, users are free to build and customize their graphical environment in any number of ways if none of the popular desktop environments meet their requirements. Generally, building a custom environment involves selection of a suitable window manager, a taskbar and a number of applications (a minimalist selection usually includes a terminal emulator, file manager, and text editor).

Other applications that are usually provided by desktop environments are:

Custom window manager

In many desktop environments, it is possible to replace the supplied window manager. See below for instructions specific to your environment.

GNOME

Alternative window managers cannot be used with GNOME Shell however GNOME Flashback provides sessions for Metacity and Compiz. Furthermore, it is possible to define your own custom GNOME sessions which use alternative components.